Attorney General Jeff Sessions — under fire after revelations emerged that he spoke twice with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. last year and did not disclose the talks during his confirmation hearings — said Thursday he would be open to recusing himself from ongoing investigations into Russian involvement within President’s Trump campaign, as calls mounted for him to do so.

"I have said whenever it's appropriate, I will recuse myself," he told NBC News. "There's no doubt about that."

Sessions’ statement — which followed another denial about meeting with the Russians during the campaign — came as demands grew, even among Republican House leadership, for Trump’s top law enforcement officer to recuse himself.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), however, said he thought the only reason for Sessions recuse to himself would be "if the (Justice) Department is investigating Jeff Sessions," dismissing calls that he should step away for a broad probe into Russian meddling.

Ryan also denied that the latest developments marked anything new.

“There’s nothing new that we have seen here,” Ryan said at his weekly press conference.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who last week became the first Republican called for a special prosecutor to probe Russian meddling, said in a statement that the new development "reaffirms what I called for in an interview last Friday, that we need an independent review by a credible third party and that Attorney General Sessions should recuse himself from any investigation into Russia."

"We need a clear-eyed view of what the Russians actually did so that all Americans can have faith in our institutions," Issa, a former House Oversight Committee Chairman, said. "Regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on – we have a vested interest in fully understanding exactly what happened and how to prevent it from happening again."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he, too, felt it would be “easier” if Sessions recused himself from any Russia probes.

“I don't want to prejudge, but I just think for any investigation going forward, you want to make sure everybody trusts the investigation," McCarthy said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"That there's no doubt within the investigation ... I think it would be easier from that standpoint, yes,” he said.

McCarthy later told "Fox and Friends" that he was "not calling on (Sessions) to recuse himself."

Trump, meanwhile, said Thursday that he continued have "total" confidence in Sessions.

Sessions’ statement came as demands grew, even among Republican House leadership, for Trump’s top law enforcement officer to recuse himself.

(Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

He added that he "wasn't aware at all" that Sessions had spoken with the Russian ambassador, but maintained that the former senator had still "probably" testified truthfully during his confirmation hearing.

Democrats, on the other hand, demanded that Sessions resign from his post altogether, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling for a series of other specific measures.

Schumer, in a press conference Thursday morning, also said he wanted to see an "independent, impartial" special prosecutor "with no attachment to the (Trump) administration" appointed to investigate Russian meddling.

If Republicans refuse to appoint such a prosecutor, Schumer said he wanted to see a law reinstated that would allow for the creation of an independent counsel to investigate.

Schumer also called for the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General to probe whether any of the ongoing investigations had "already been compromised" as a result of Sessions' contact with the Russians.

"We have an obligation to get to the truth," he said.

The demands came just a day after news emerged that Sessions had twice met with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., while he was still a senator representing Alabama and an advisor Trump’s campaign.

One of the meetings was a private conversation between Session and Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, when Sessions was still senior member of the Armed Services Committee and serving as a top foreign policy advisor to the Trump camp.

The earlier one-on-one conversation between the two took place in July at a Heritage Foundation event around the time of the Republican National Convention that was attended by about 50 ambassadors.

The meetings came during what intelligence officials have said was a cyber-attack led by Moscow to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The House and Senate intelligence committees are already examining Russian interference in the election, as is the FBI, which reports to Sessions.

Sessions had said under oath at his confirmation hearings in January that he had no contact with the Russian government during the campaign.

He also said during his hearings that he had no knowledge of anyone related to the Trump campaign communicating with Russian intelligence or government agents during the election.

A spokeswoman for Sessions told the Washington Post on Wednesday that the attorney general met with Kislyak last year in his capacity as a senator, when he was a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Officials told the paper that Sessions did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak, according to the newspaper.

A Justice Department spokeswoman added that Sessions met with the ambassador due to his role with the Senate Armed Services Committee — not as a representative of the Trump campaign.

Still, the Post report suggests that the contact was unusual. Among the 20 of 26 members of the Armed Services committee who responded to the newspaper, none met with Russia’s ambassador last year.

Sessions, during his own brief comments to NBC Thursday morning, denied the report.

“I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign,” Sessions said Thursday morning. “Those remarks are unbelievable to me and are false. I don’t have anything else to say about that.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversaw Sessions' confirmation hearings and a former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sessions needs to "either recuse himself or resign" after misleading her committee.

"He lied under oath in my book," she told reporters.

Several Republicans, however, still came to Sessions' defense.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who recently faced criticism for working with the Trump administration to knock down media stories about the Trump campaign's Russia ties, pushed back at the Sessions criticism.

"We're not in the business of investigating individual senators that say they were doing senate business. Jeff Session has to decide in his role as Attorney General whether he can participate in anything to deal with Russian potential involvement in our elections and I trust Jeff Sessions to make that decision," he said.

Senate Intelligence Committee member James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Sessions' meetings should be investigated, but cautioned against a rush to judgment.

"What I'm stunned by is the rapid move to assume the worst on something we know almost nothing about," he said. "There is no big smoking gun at this point that we know of. Should we do thorough investigations? Absolutely. But I'm just appalled at the rapid rush to judgment on something we have almost no facts on."

Trump, for his part, has denied any of his associates had contact with Moscow before last year’s election and has dismissed the controversy as a “scam” perpetrated by “fake news” media.

Moscow has also denied the accusations.

But the shadow of collusion with Russia has haunted the Trump administration.

Intelligence agencies continue to look into their findings that Russia was connected to the hacking of Democratic Party emails during the presidential campaign.

And last month, retired Army general Michael Flynn was forced to resign as Trump’s national security advisor after it came to light that he lied about discussing U.S. sanctions with Kislyak ahead of Trump’s inauguration.